Jim Eyres plays his coronet next to his donation kettle in front of Macy's on Geary Street in San Francisco.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Jim Eyres plays his coronet next to his donation kettle in front of...

Image 2 of 9

Top: Jim Eyres plays his cornet next to his donation kettle in front of Macy's on Geary Street in San Francisco. Above: He takes a short break from his music.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Top: Jim Eyres plays his cornet next to his donation kettle in...

Image 3 of 9

Jim Eyres adjusts his donation kettle. He has spent a decade outside Macy's.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Jim Eyres adjusts his donation kettle. He has spent a decade...

Image 4 of 9

Volunteer bell ringer with the Salvation Army Jim Eyres packs up for the day after playing in front of Macy's on Geary Blvd. in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Volunteer bell ringer with the Salvation Army Jim Eyres packs up...

Image 5 of 9

Volunteer bell ringer with the Salvation Army Jim Eyres keeps his mouth piece warm under his jacket between songs.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Volunteer bell ringer with the Salvation Army Jim Eyres keeps his...

Image 6 of 9

Volunteer bell ringer with the Salvation Army Jim Eyres (rt) talks with Lt. Col. Stephen Smith during the celebrity bell ringing event in front of Macy's.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Volunteer bell ringer with the Salvation Army Jim Eyres (rt) talks...

Image 7 of 9

Volunteer bell ringer with the Salvation Army Jim Eyres rings a small bell between songs.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Volunteer bell ringer with the Salvation Army Jim Eyres rings a...

Image 8 of 9

Volunteer bell ringer with the Salvation Army Jim Eyres plays his coronet next to his donation kettle in from of Macy's on Geary Blvd. in San Francisco, Calif. When he bought the horn he learned that it had been rescued from a flooded music store in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Volunteer bell ringer with the Salvation Army Jim Eyres plays his...

Image 9 of 9

Volunteer bell ringer with the Salvation Army Jim Eyres assembles his coronet in front of Macy's on Geary Blvd. in San Francisco, Calif.

A recent Monday, 1:17 p.m.: Jim Eyres lifted his silver cornet to his lips and eased out a soulful rendition of "Ave Maria," while another Salvation Army partisan clanged a little red bell in the distance. The 83-foot Christmas tree in Union Square rose high above them both, and the air was filled with joyous spirit.

"It sounds like Christmas," said Isadora Thlosig, 7, of Martinez after putting a bill into Eyres' red kettle.

Eyres, 69, offered a tug on his hat, a smile and a "Merry Christmas" in return.

About half the Salvation Army bell ringers are paid minimum wage or work the kettles as part of recovery programs. Neither applies to Eyres: He's a volunteer who makes a point of giving more than he gets.

More than once, when a homeless person has dropped his last dollar into the kettle, Eyres has opened his own wallet and returned the generosity.

"He needs that money even more than the Salvation Army does," Eyres said. "It's part of the Christmas spirit, I guess."

Despite being born deaf in his left ear, Eyres learned to play the cornet at the age of 10 from a neighbor in his hometown of Eugene, Ore. Over the years, he got pretty good at the tiny, tighter-coiled sibling of the trumpet.

"I thought it was what kids did. You got assigned an instrument, and you practiced a half hour a day like they told you," Eyres said. "It gives you an extra dimension."

He played the horn through his school years and joined the marching band at the University of Oregon, where he studied economics and met his wife, Tresa. They have been together 46 years.

In 1969, Eyres finished a two-year stint in the Army in Washington, D.C. It was time to make a change, and he and his wife decided to head west.

"Our friends said San Francisco was a nice place, so we drove until we ran out of freeway at Franklin and Van Ness," Eyres said.

The military helped him find a job at Bank of America, where he spent the next 29 years and rose to vice president. The bank sent him all over the country, but by 1990 he was back in San Francisco and wanting something more. He hooked up as a volunteer with the Salvation Army.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Eyres spent three weeks feeding relief workers at ground zero. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he was one of the volunteers helping 30,000 refugees housed in the Astrodome in Houston. Both are experiences he will never forget, but the pride of his volunteering is the time he's spent for the past decade outside Macy's, playing his cornet and ringing a bell.

"He really does have talent," said Lt. Col. Stephen Smith of the Salvation Army, who has played his own cornet by Eyres' side on many occasions. "He's willing to give up his time, and that's what is extraordinary about him. Without guys like Jim, we could not do the things we do."

Eyres has at least 60 songs in his repertoire - "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)" is his favorite. He plays a tune, then stops to smile and ring the bell, giving his lips a chance to rest up.

"If I were Wynton Marsalis, I could play the whole time," Eyres said. "My lip is good for about and hour and a half. That is the physical limitation. ... Then I put it away and go home."

His playing isn't flashy. "It's not supposed to be show business," Eyres said. "The reason I'm doing this is to help others and the Salvation Army. If my modest skill at cornet playing can make Christmas better ... then we all benefit from that."

To see a multimedia production of this piece, go to blog.sfgate.com/cityexposed. If you have ideas for the City Exposed, e-mail Mike Kepka at mkepka@sfchronicle.com.